What's the purpose of the iMovie Originals Movies folder? Can I safely delete the contents?

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What's the purpose of the iMovie Originals Movies folder? Can I safely delete the contents?

Hi, this is the first of a few questions I have about iMovie. Been a user for a few years now but there's always been a few things I could never understand.

I'm trying to free up some hard drive space. Storage is starting to become a problem as I've been shooting lots of 1080p video.

I find iMovies approach to storing video confusing. I have moved content from "iMovie Events" to an external HD when I have finished editing particular movies. But the folder taking up most of the room on my internal HD is the folder iMovie Original Movies. It has 3 random movies contained within. I can't understand why those in particular are in there but they are taking up roughly 15GB.

I have the original footage archived through iMovie in iMovie Camera Archives (I'm starting to question the logic of this storage wise, but worry about loosing the raw 1080p footage) and the edits in Events which I normally output to a MobileMe gallery.

My question is can I delete the contents of iMovie Original Movies? What's its purpose?

Thanks.

MacBook, Mac OS X (10.6.7)

Posted on May 7, 2011 5:32 PM

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Answer 1

May 7, 2011 8:24 PM in response to Rodi OLeary

When you import an h.264 or mpeg4 movie into an iMovie event, that is fine. You can edit h.264 in iMovie. However, if you want to use certain effects like fast motion, slow motion, freeze frame, etc, iMovie will need to optimize your movie. This means that iMovie converts your movie to Apple Intermediate Codec, which is much less compressed and therefore a larger file.

When iMovie converts your h.264 file to Apple Intermediate Codec, it will save your original h.264 file in the iMovie Original Movies folder so that you have a copy of your original footage.

It is generally good to keep the first generation of your footage, but you can delete it if you want.

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Answer 2

Rodi OLeary Author

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69 points

May 8, 2011 4:12 AM in response to AppleMan1958

Thanks for that explanation. It make perfect sense as I now realise content in that folder relates to footage shot with my Canon 1080p HD camcorder, as opposed to the footage I shoot on my iPhone 4.

So, am I correct in saying that in my situation, where I always archive important footage first then import into it into iMovie from the archive, I could safely delete the contents of the Original Movies Folder?

Thanks.

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Answer 3

May 8, 2011 4:19 AM in response to Rodi OLeary

Yes.

But to give yourself (and me) peace of mind....

Find the Event file (if you still have it). Right-click on a clip and select Open With...QuickTime Player.

Click WINDOW/INSPECTOR and check the codec next to the word FORMAT. It is probably Apple Intermediate Codec.

Now, find a clip in the iMovie Original Movies folder and do the same. See what codec it is.

Finally, verify that you have an archive copy of this footage.

Then you can delete.

I say this because Apple uses this folder as I described, but there may be other uses of this folder that I don't know about.

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Answer 4

Rodi OLeary Author

Level 1

69 points

May 8, 2011 4:36 AM in response to AppleMan1958

Hi.

The events file? When I open the corresponding folder in the finder in Events I just get a list of folders and clip files. Which of these should I open?

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Answer 5

May 8, 2011 4:48 AM in response to Rodi OLeary

Pick one of the clip files at the top level of the folder with the extension .MOV.

You can ignore the folders iMovie Cache, iMovie Waveforms, and iMovie Thumbnails.

For example, choose clip-2011-04-24 00;15;44.mov

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Answer 6

Rodi OLeary Author

Level 1

69 points

May 8, 2011 5:09 AM in response to AppleMan1958

Thanks. The clip in the events folder is in Apple Intermediate Codec.

A clip from the same video in the Original Movies folder is also in Apple Intermediate Codec but with larger pixel dimensions. I'm assuming this isn't H.264 as you mentioned should be there? See attached images.

The original movie is shot in 1080p AVCHD. But when I imported it into iMovie I did so at the iMovie optimised 920 x 540px as most movies I edit will only ever appear online for the moment (I do archive original HD footage from important footage to the iMovie Camera Archives for future use).

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Answer 7

May 8, 2011 5:20 AM in response to Rodi OLeary

OK In your case, iMovie optimized your video to 960x540, which is fine for most purposes and is much smaller. However, it kept a good copy of the original 1920x1080.

You can always recreate the 1920x1080 copy from your Archive file, so you can delete the "iMovie Original Movies" file if you want.

I think that file is there mainly so if you Optimize, and then wish you hadn't, you can easily go back.

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Answer 8

Rodi OLeary Author

Level 1

69 points

May 8, 2011 5:23 AM in response to AppleMan1958

Great, thanks for you help AppleMan1958. 10 points for you!

I've just posted another question if you fancy another go!

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